What is a Multi-Family Office and Could it Help With Your Wealth Management?

Family offices are private wealth management and lifestyle advisory firms that serve highly-affluent families and/or individuals. Although a “family office” sounds similar to a “family business,” they aren’t the same thing. However, a family office can also be a family business.

If you’re in a high-income bracket, a family office could help you with your wealth management and other services, such as charitable giving advice, concierge, creating trusts, among other services.

Single-Family Offices vs. Multi-Family Offices

A single-family office serves ultra-wealthy families with net worths into the hundreds of millions or even billions. A multi-family office spreads its costs by serving multiple clients. Single-family and multi-family offices typically offer similar services, but not every family office is the same.

Here are some common multi-family office services you’ll come across: 

■ Insurance management and analysis

■ Accounting and reporting

■ Financial planning and investment advice

■ Tax advisory and estate planning

■ Philanthropy (private foundations)

■ Generational wealth management

Multi-family offices will include additional administrative and lifestyle services like family education, concierge medicine, overseeing art collections, travel planning, and more. 

While both single and multi-family offices offer holistic solutions for ultra-affluent families, a single-family service office can only take care of one family member or small family. If you have a large family or have more assets, a multi-family service will suit your needs.

How Can Multi-Family Offices Help With Wealth Management?

Wealth management isn’t just about saving money and investing in stocks. It requires a well-coordinated, collaborative effort between legal, insurance, business, estate, and tax teams.

Financial Protection

Family offices hire the best-in-class managers money can buy, meaning you’ll have experienced and knowledgeable financial advisors on your team. With their help, you can plan aspects of your family’s finances and set up trusts that distribute your wealth when you pass.

If you hold multiple assets, a multi-family office can provide you with a single location to manage everything. A family office doesn’t replace your family members’ role in estate planning, but they will protect your assets to the extent of their abilities by offering you high-quality financial advice.

Monitoring and Management

The more assets you own, the harder it is to look after them. If you don’t have the time to research new investment strategies or monitor your transactions, a family office can do that for you. What’s more, a family office can buy these assets on your behalf if you ask them to.

However, if you do want to help manage a non-physical portfolio with your advisor, you can ask for their advice specifically. For example, an on-site broker can offer strategies that pertain to equities, multi-asset portfolios, and fixed income. Plus, all of your assets stay in one place.

Financial and Tax Planning

Multi-family offices can give family’s what they need to plan and make difficult decisions about their financial future. While they are experienced at managing investments, they can also provide clients with legal and tax advice on risk management, charitable giving, and more.

Even with a large amount of cash flow, planning for your financial future isn’t easy. Instead of dealing with the overwhelm yourself, hire a multi-family office to stay on top of your finances.

Global Investments

Getting into the global investment scene is another difficult process to navigate, but a multi-family office makes it simple. A family office can act as a single point of contact when their clients want to manage international investments or get into global investing in general.

With an international financial advisor, you can make more informed decisions surrounding your investment purchases. Family offices offer more transparency throughout the process.

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